Fears that action could smooth airflow around the body
Warning came before time-trial stage to Dijon
Riders at the Tour de France Femmes were subject to extra clothing checks before Tuesday’s stage following claims some could be using extra padding in their bras to seek an aerodynamic advantage.
A communique from race organisers confirmed the checks after Dutch outlet Wielerflits reported some teams had raised concerns that padded bras could smooth the airflow around the body for the stage four time trial.
Continue reading...Probation inspector for England and Wales says ‘clunky’ system needs huge increase in staff
The electronic tagging system that will be relied upon to monitor thousands of offenders released early from prison is failing to alert the authorities of potential breaches of conditions, a watchdog has warned.
Martin Jones, HM inspector of probation in England and Wales, said the current system relied upon hard-pressed police and probation officers looking up individual cases and then deciding whether potential breaches need to be investigated further.
Continue reading...US secretary of state comments come after treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said Washington could reach a deal ‘by tomorrow’
US secretary of state Marco Rubio said there has been progress made in discussions with Iran and Oman on getting more ships through the strait of Hormuz but no final agreement has been reached.
“There’s been progress made in those talks, but not finality yet. We’re hoping that will happen very shortly,” Rubio told reporters at the State Department.
Continue reading...

When cops use Flock to arrest someone in Wapello County, Iowa, they don’t want them to know. A usage policy for the automated license plate reader cameras in the county tells police, in no uncertain terms, to keep them a secret: “DO NOT MENTION ALPR USAGE TO THE OCCUPANTS OF THE VEHICLE,” the policy document reads. “DO NOT MENTION ALPR USAGE IN YOUR REPORT OR COMPLAINT UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY.”
The police guidance document is unusual in how clearly it tells police not to mention their Flock use, but it also highlights several important things in the Flock debate. While Flock likes to say that it is a transparent surveillance company and that it cares about “accountability” and “governance,” some of its customers believe its use should be kept secret. Flock is now operating in thousands of cities and towns, and when, how, and why police use the system is wildly inconsistent. Even though Flock does have various auditing and transparency tools, police have their own opinions about what Flock can and should be used for and what the policies for it should be.

It is not just local police in small communities who are creating policies designed to obfuscate Flock usage. Earlier this year, we reported that police in multiple states were being told to be “as vague as permissible” about why they were using Flock because their searches could be obtained using public records requests, and that warning was being shared by the FBI and Department of Justice. Residents of many towns using Flock also say that their cities entered into contracts with Flock with little public oversight, essentially quietly opting them into a nationwide surveillance network without robust public debate.
Wapello County’s “standard operating procedures” document for Flock cameras was created in November of 2025 and was obtained by a 404 Media reader using a public records request and was shared with us. Coincidentally, Wapello County’s largest city is Ottumwa, Iowa, where 404 Media ran a Super Bowl commercial earlier this year. The county has four Flock cameras via a contract it signed with the company in late 2024. The policy further instructs police to be vague in any arrest report, suggesting that they simply call the Flock system “county resources.”
“DO NOT MENTION ALPR USAGE IN YOUR REPORT OR COMPLAINT UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. If asked a direct question about ALPR usage by someone such as an attorney, tell the truth,” it says. “If it is necessary to explain in a report, it is advised to use language such as ‘Using county resources, I discovered the suspect vehicle was bearing an Iowa plate.’ Treat the ALPR information like you would intelligence. It is simply a lead that you verified and acted on.”
The guidance to keep Flock use secret is reminiscent—but less extreme—than guidance on some other secretive police technologies. For years, police tried to hide the existence of cell site simulators (popularly known as Stingrays), going as far as to drop criminal cases where it was likely that a judge would expose information about them. Stingrays are essentially fake cell phone towers that can be used to identify the phones of people in a specific area.
In the public records request, Sheriff Don Phillips said “there is no need” to tell people about the use of Flock.
“Our policy requires deputies to check the license plate to make sure the correct plate is accurate and the information as to an arrest warrant, stolen vehicle, stolen plate or missing person is correct,” he said. “There is no need to tell them about our investigative methods or sources, such as the camera system, because the information is verified by the deputy running the license plate. It is common practice for law enforcement to refrain from disclosing investigative methods and sources to prevent criminals from learning how to circumvent them.”
Phillips did not respond to a request for comment.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) bought access to what it described as more than a billion airline ticketing records, related to not just U.S. domestic flights or those landing in the country, but also flights between foreign countries, according to SEC documents obtained by 404 Media. A group of the world’s airlines, including Delta, United, and American, previously sold the data under the company name ARC; that is where the SEC bought the data from.
ARC, or the Airlines Reporting Corporation, stopped selling airline ticketing records after repeated coverage from 404 Media and pressure from lawmakers last year. But the newly obtained records provide additional insight into the breadth of data that airlines were selling without their customers' knowledge, and that law enforcement agencies were tapping into, likely without a warrant.
“ARC's ticketing data includes not only US domestic flights and international flights to/from the US, but also flights entirely between or within foreign countries,” one of the documents obtained by 404 Media reads. 404 Media obtained them through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the SEC.
The data includes each passengers’ name, their credit card number used to buy the ticket, the departure and arrival cities of their travel, the date of their flight, the flight number, and the “selling agency,” likely referring to the travel agency the person used, according to the documents. ARC obtained its data by acting as the conduit between airlines and travel agencies. Whenever someone booked a flight with a travel agency like Expedia or Kayak, ARC received information about that booking and then resold it as part of its data broker business.
ARC’s Travel Intelligence Program (TIP), as the data product was called, was also capable of sending daily search results related to a specific list of names, the document says. “ARC sends daily reports regarding any air ticketing purchased by individuals over the prior 24 hours),” it adds. The document says SEC required access to 1-25 daily searches through this alert service.
The SEC did not respond to a request for comment.
ARC previously told 404 Media that TIP “was established by ARC after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and has since been used by the U.S. intelligence and law enforcement community to support national security and prevent criminal activity with bipartisan support. Over the years, TIP has likely contributed to the prevention and apprehension of criminals involved in human trafficking, drug trafficking, money laundering, sex trafficking, national security threats, terrorism and other imminent threats of harm to the United States.”
Peter Breedveld In Susan Sontags weergaloze roman The Volcano Lover worden een Britse gezant, zijn vrouw en haar minnaar collaborateurs van een moordzuchtig regime in het laat 18e-eeuwse Napels. Peter Breedveld In de late 18e eeuw, toen Italië nog verdeeld was in allerlei staatjes, was Sir William Hamilton de Britse gezant in het koninkrijk Napels. Hij was met zijn vrouw getrouwd om haar geld maar hield wel van haar, want ze hield zich keurig op de achtergrond, zoals het een vrouw in die tijd betaamde. Na haar dood trouwde hij met de courtisane van zijn neef, Emma Lyon, die door die neef bij hem was geparkeerd maar nooit meer werd opgehaald. Emma was van nederige afkomst maar intelligent en zeer mooi, een gewild schildersmodel en een getalenteerd actrice. De Britse zeeheld Horatio Nelson werd een huisvriend van de Hamiltons en Emma’s minnaar, een schandaal in de hogere kringen, vooral omdat Nelson de bevelen van zijn meerderen begon te negeren en zich liet gebruiken als persoonlijke beul van de koning van Napels, die de halve Napolitaanse elite zonder meer liet executeren als hij ze zelfs maar verdacht van sympathie voor de ideeën van de Franse revolutie. Dat moest volgens geschiedschrijvers wel […]
Het bericht Ménage à trois op een vulkaan verscheen eerst op Frontaal Naakt.
CEUTA (ANP/AFP) - Het dodental na de plotselinge massale aankomst van migranten in Ceuta is opgelopen tot 75, meldt een afvaardiging van de Spaanse regering in de exclave. De lokale leider van Ceuta had het eerder over 88 lichamen, maar dat ging over een langere periode.
Volgens de Spaanse autoriteiten drongen vorige week donderdag en vrijdag 72.000 mensen Ceuta binnen, velen van hen zwemmend. De meeste van de doden zijn tijdens die overtocht verdronken.
Spanje meldde dinsdag dat 70.000 van de migranten inmiddels weer vertrokken zijn naar Marokko, waar Ceuta aan grenst.
De sterfgevallen, die de lokale leider Juan Vivas telde, vonden plaats in de afgelopen twee weken. Toen waren er ook al kleinschalige pogingen geweest om Ceuta zwemmend te bereiken.

Amaiii goed nieuws mannekes: we gaan minder betalen aan de pomp. Het minder goede nieuws: het blijft allemaal mokerduur. De adviesprijs voor een litertje Euro95 ligt hier net onder de 2,60 en dat is krankzinnig, zeker als morgen de maximale peutprijs bij de Belg (waar verder NIETS goed geregeld is) met 9 cent zakt naar 1,866. Het verschil loopt daarmee voor het eerst op naar meer dan 70 cent. Morgen dus allemaal lachend naar het zuiden karren, lachend in de tankfile staan, lachend de tank volgooien, lachend afrekenen, dan nog ergens friet halen, lachend terugrijden, lachend uw schokdempers laten repareren en lachend naar uw banksaldo staren. Dat worden Ceuta-achtige taferelen bij de zuidgrens.
The United States Coast Guard turns 236 years old this Aug. 4 — older than the Navy's current organizational form, older than the Marine Corps as a permanent standing force and older than the country's income tax by more than a century. It's also, by a wide margin, the least understood branch of the U.S. military, in ways that go beyond people simply not knowing what it does day to day.Coasties will literally save your life on their first day at work, or get you to where you need to go no matter how hard it is, and even save you when a good day of ice-fishin' gets ugly. Their "boot camp" is said to be either the hardest or as difficult as Parris Island. Where other services train to maybe someday fight, the Coast Guard works every day of the week. Because of their history, they are part of the Department of Homeland Security (and used to be part of the Department of Transportation), not the Department of Defense. They can be called to duty during wartime -- but they do serve in law-enforcement roles all over the globe. They have a service academy similar USMA, USNA, and USAFA -- only it's smaller and more selective. Incoming cadets spend a week aboard a tall ship called the Eagle, which was seized from the Nazis at the end of WWII. The Coast Guard is different in every way, and I wish them fair winds and following seas for another 236 years or more.